Three Good Reads

Here's some great long-form reading for your last dying days of summer. Ace magazine writer William Langewiesche uses the knowledge he accumulated as a former pilot himself to tell the story in Vanity Fair of the miraculous water landing of the U.S. Airways plane in the Hudson River. We think it's a magisterial read, and look forward to the book due to be published soon. Meanwhile, author Sam Tanenhaus has a long exploration in The New Republic on the challenges facing the American conservative movement, which he pronounces dead (we think that's a tad premature). Elsewhere, Smithsonian Magazine uses the 50th anniversary of architect Frank Lloyd Wright's master work, the Guggenheim Museum, to take yet another look at his larger legacy. As a bonus, we go back a few months in the ESPN.com archives to bring you this interesting study of the reticent football legend, former Steelers coach Chuck Noll. A Cleveland native, he's a class act to the end. You can review earlier TGRs here.